We used to have fun commenting about the bond market, including Treasuries, Mortgages, Municipals, and Corporates. But that was before the dark times. Before deleveraging.
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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

I love getting comments on this blog. I believe most of my readers are investment pros, academics or students, based on the quality of many of the comments. This blog has seen a consistent increase in the number of daily page views, and by extention, the number of comments. This has improved the level of discourse here, and made blogging that much more fund.

But there is one thing I absolutely will not tolerate, and that's ad hominem attacks in the comment section. Whether that's aimed at me or someone else. I don't care. I won't allow this blog to devolve into a kind of cable news-style yelling back and forth thing. I hate Hannity and Colmes, I hate Rush Limbaugh, I hate Bill O'Rielly, I hate Michael Moore, and I'm losing patience with Paul Krugman. These people are turning political debate into something with barely more intelligent than two guys arguing over the best sports team in a bar. Its OK when San Francisco Giants fans turn a blind eye to Barry Bonds' transgressions and cheer for him anyway. That's just sports. But its not OK when the debate over Iraq becomes a question of whether you are a coward who wants to cut and run or an imperialistic idiot who doesn't care about the death toll.

The blog world is full of people like this. Both writers and readers. They are merely cheerleaders. If I am a Republican and I merely champion every cause the Republicans support, how is that different from a cheerleader? Who merely cheers for their team regardless of whether they are ahead or behind, playing well or playing poorly, hustling or not, making smart plays or not, etc. Same goes for if I'm a Democrat and I just bash W no matter what he says. Especially if I bash him by calling his policies idiotic without any substantive discussion as to why they are idiotic. There are blogs out there, like Mark Thoma or Greg Mankiw, which profess a consistent partisan view, but do it intelligently, reasoning out their positions. This kind of writing is a net benefit to the world. Sean Hannity is not. He's dragging the world of political discourse down in the name of ratings. Its a free country, and people want to watch him apparently, so there's nothing I can do about it. But its a shame.

So you may think I'm over reacting to a single comment, but this is a real hot button with me. Today I get a comment that starts out with "What a dope you are." Then goes on to make various comments which indicate that the commenter didn't actually read the post carefully. Listen, things will stay civil and intellectual on Accrued Interest. I'm positive that the majority of readers want it this way. And frankly readers who want to play the Bill O'Rielly game are readers I don't need.

I won't let my blog become like this, no matter what it takes. If I have to disable comments, I will.

I apologize for calling you a dope, an ad hominem attack. But the assumption you made, that Europeans are pumping up this rally, was off-base and careless, for reasons I identified.

Every blogger has a right to run his/her site as you wish. Bloggers start out as unpaid or low-paid Gods of their own minds. They then go on to reveal, through thoughts and words, how much insight, information, courage, and compassion they have. The best gain a following and the rest either fade away or continue to howl at the moon.

Your retort and headline doesn't show a lot of class. You are not going to destroy anybody with a blog. Even if you receive ad hominen attacks, which you definitely will if your blog is well read, you should respond to them (if at all) with good arguments. That's always what wins hearts and minds.

What I care about most in any blog is truth. And I've learned the truth about today's market from reading many excellent blogs. When the yen moves back to its real value, the U.S. stock market will topple. That's the truth.

I said Asian and European, and I was simply making the observation that overnight futures on the S&P were up strong the last three days where the follow through was weaker in the cash market. FOR THREE DAYS. I don't know what this has to do with the carry trade or the longer-term bull market, but I sure didn't mention any of this in my post.

Run the blog how you want to. I agree with the content of your post. Ad Hominem attacks are uncalled for, and frankly, I don't understand why that anon had to overshadow the better points of his/her argument (yen liquidity can go short or long) with such statements.

Anon:

I would imagine that the headline is what I have often heard referred to as a "joke". Maybe leave a name or at least a handle next time.

I agree with your point on the yen, but disagree as to the pre-market activity in re: Europe.

Don't you think that a few of the boys in The City thought that they might front run the U.S. markets with the FTSE up 2.5%? Isn't that at least a possibility?

You are clearly showing your political bias when you say that you have reached the hate stage with Hannity, Limbaugh and O'Reilly but not with Krugman. From my observations, of that group, Krugman uses the least amount of facts and logic. Hannity is shrill mostly due to the fact that the liberals he interviews won't answer his direct questions. They are quite skilled in question avoidance. You are criticizing the wrong side of the debate.

About Me

I oversee taxable bond trading for a small investment management firm. Opinions expressed on this website may not reflect the opinions of my employers. Strategies described here should not be taken as advice, and may not be the strategies being used for my clients. Take this website as the egotistical ramblings of a bond geek and nothing more. E-mail is accruedint *at* gmail.com or find on Facebook.